ICC judges reject Israel's request to withdraw arrest warrants

17/7/2025 6:10

Judges at the

International Criminal Court (ICC) on Wednesday rejected

Israel's request to withdraw arrest warrants against its prime

minister and former defence minister while the ICC reviews

Israeli challenges to its jurisdiction over the conduct of

the Gaza war.



In a decision published on the ICC website, judges also

rejected an Israeli request to suspend the wider ICC

investigation into alleged atrocity crimes in the Palestinian

Territories.



The ICC issued arrest warrants on November 21 for Israeli

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence chief,

Yoav Gallant, as well as a Hamas leader, Ibrahim al-Masri, for

alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza

conflict.



The court said in February that judges had withdrawn the

arrest warrant for al-Masri, also known as Mohammed Deif,

following credible reports of his death.



Israel rejects the jurisdiction of the Hague-based court and

denies war crimes in Gaza, where it has waged a military

campaign it says is aimed at eliminating Hamas since the deadly

attack on Israel by the militant Palestinian group on October 7,

2023. It is contesting the warrants against Netanyahu and

Gallant.



Israel has argued that an appeals chamber decision in April

ordering the pre-trial chamber to review Israel's objections to

the court's jurisdiction means there is no valid jurisdictional

basis for the warrants.



The judges rejected that reasoning as incorrect, saying on

Wednesday that Israel's jurisdictional challenge to the arrest

warrants was still pending and the warrants would remain in

place until the court ruled on that issue specifically.



There is no timeline for a ruling on jurisdiction in this

case.



In June the United States imposed sanctions on four judges

at the ICC, an unprecedented retaliation over the war tribunal's

issuance of an arrest warrant for Netanyahu. Two of the

sanctioned judges are on the panel that ruled to reject Israel's

request to withdraw the warrants.